A review by hannahmayreads
The Parisian by Isabella Hammad
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
It has a density that is to be expected of a book with such a remarkable scope. I love deep, immersive, expansive historical fiction so who knows why I left this sitting on my shelf for so long. My reasons for picking it up now though are obvious. Books are windows to other worlds, transporting us between time and place, but most importantly, perspective. Fiction I think often does this much better than non-fiction as evidenced in a book like this one.
This is an ambitious novel by any standards but Hammad animates so vividly a history I knew only a little about, and it is this energy that makes this book in particular so powerful. All the best things about historical fiction are, thankfully, not lost to this ambition - in fact, it is quite the opposite. It is vivid with detail and rich in emotion. It reads like one of the behemoths of classic literature that we're used to seeing set in Europe or the Americas. This is every bit as good with its magnificently controlled prose that with today's context has a renewed sense of urgency. It is grand, ambitious and accomplished yet written with an apparent ease and intimacy with its characters that is extraordinary considering it was Hammad's debut.
The ending felt hopeful, but we know what lies ahead.
This is an ambitious novel by any standards but Hammad animates so vividly a history I knew only a little about, and it is this energy that makes this book in particular so powerful. All the best things about historical fiction are, thankfully, not lost to this ambition - in fact, it is quite the opposite. It is vivid with detail and rich in emotion. It reads like one of the behemoths of classic literature that we're used to seeing set in Europe or the Americas. This is every bit as good with its magnificently controlled prose that with today's context has a renewed sense of urgency. It is grand, ambitious and accomplished yet written with an apparent ease and intimacy with its characters that is extraordinary considering it was Hammad's debut.
The ending felt hopeful, but we know what lies ahead.